Press Release
July 31, 2023
- Environmental Policy
Launch of the "Working Group on the Green List"
A “Working Group on the Green List” has been newly launched under the "Committee on Green Finance" established in FY2021 for the purpose of enhancing the list of eligible green projects for the further development of the green finance market in Japan.
The Ministry of the Environment (MOE), Japan, launched the “Committee on Green Finance” in 2021. Since then, MOE Japan has held discussions from the perspective of sound and appropriate development of the green finance market in Japan, and the ministry has updated the Green Bond and Sustainability-Linked Bond Guidelines and the Green Loan and Sustainability-Linked Loan Guidelines since 2017, which are domestic practical guidelines based on international principles, such as those of the International Capital Market Association, the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association, the Loan Market Association, and the Loan Syndications and Trading Association.
Green finance guidelines:
https://www.env.go.jp/content/000128193.pdf
In the meetings held last year, the Committee discussed how to further develop the green finance market in Japan and concluded that it is particularly important to unlock latent capital needs for green finance by further expanding the Green List, a positive list of eligible green projects, KPIs, and negative environmental impacts in Appendix 1 of MOE Japan’s green finance guidelines.
In order to enhance the Green List, it is useful to establish a new mechanism that would continuously reflect trends in markets, policies, and technologies to regularly update the list.
Since the green finance marries environmental science and finance, it is also salient to have input from not only market participants but also environmental experts.
Therefore, based on the discussions in last year's Committee and the above, MOE Japan has established a new "Working Group on the Green List" under the Committee towards its objective of scaling up the green finance market by enhancing the Green List.
The Working Group’s output will be an updated green list, and in addition to the further expansion of the climate change mitigation and adaptation areas in the list, which was done in the July 2022 revision, it aims to enhance other areas, such as but not limited to circular economy and natural capital and biodiversity.
The Working Group convenes members and observers from the financial sector, environmental experts, a research institute, an international organization, and related-government agencies in a peer-to-peer collaborative space to meet the objective.
Green finance guidelines:
https://www.env.go.jp/content/000128193.pdf
In the meetings held last year, the Committee discussed how to further develop the green finance market in Japan and concluded that it is particularly important to unlock latent capital needs for green finance by further expanding the Green List, a positive list of eligible green projects, KPIs, and negative environmental impacts in Appendix 1 of MOE Japan’s green finance guidelines.
In order to enhance the Green List, it is useful to establish a new mechanism that would continuously reflect trends in markets, policies, and technologies to regularly update the list.
Since the green finance marries environmental science and finance, it is also salient to have input from not only market participants but also environmental experts.
Therefore, based on the discussions in last year's Committee and the above, MOE Japan has established a new "Working Group on the Green List" under the Committee towards its objective of scaling up the green finance market by enhancing the Green List.
The Working Group’s output will be an updated green list, and in addition to the further expansion of the climate change mitigation and adaptation areas in the list, which was done in the July 2022 revision, it aims to enhance other areas, such as but not limited to circular economy and natural capital and biodiversity.
The Working Group convenes members and observers from the financial sector, environmental experts, a research institute, an international organization, and related-government agencies in a peer-to-peer collaborative space to meet the objective.
Contact
Green Finance Office, Environment and Economy Division, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of the Environment
- Representative number
- 03-3581-3351
- Direct number
- 03-5521-8240
- Director
- HIRAO Yoshihide
- Senior Coordinator for Financial Markets Planning
- MIYAHARA Aki
- Deputy Director
- KODAKA Daisuke
- Deputy Director for Green Finance
- MIZUNO Saya
- Environmental Specialist
- IIJIMA Hideki